Uncle Rover's Cabin
The tofu-sucking crazies at PETA are confusing animals with people again. Julie Watson writes for the AP that a federal judge heard arguments Monday on whether animals should have the same constitutional protections against slavery as people:

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller called the hearing in San Diego after Sea World asked the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that names five orcas as plaintiffs in the case.

PETA claims the captured killer whales are treated like slaves for being forced to live in tanks and perform daily at its parks in San Diego and Orlando, Fla.

"This case is on the next frontier of civil rights," said PETA's attorney Jeffrey Kerr, representing the five orcas.

Sea World's attorney Theodore Shaw called the lawsuit a waste of the court's time and resources. He said it defies common sense and goes against 125 years of case law applied to the Constitution's 13th amendment that prohibits slavery between humans.

"With all due respect, the court does not have the authority to even consider this question," Shaw said, adding later: "Neither orcas nor any other animal were included in the 'We the people' ... when the Constitution was adopted."

Comments

Orcas are very smart since they belong to the dolphin family. There is really only one species of orcas but they have different "groups" separated by CULTURE.. These groups do not intermingle, and have different things they hunt, eat, and how they socialize. You could say, in that sense they are similar to the different human races except these groups are separated by millions of years.

On another note PETA does forget how cruel orcas are to the animals they hunt. They do like to torture and hunt for fun like we humans do. My favorite examples?

A group of orcas was filmed hunting a baby whale. They separate it from the mother, exhaust it, drown it and then eat nothing but a small piece of the jaw. They were hunting just for kicks.

Another female orca would tip great white sharks upside down (which causes them to be paralyzed) and just eat the liver.

Purplepen
at February 6, 2012 9:18 PM

It's not a question of whether or not orcas are nice in the wild. Animals in the wild behave like animals in the wild. It's idiotic to cast judgement on animals following their instincts..

Orcas in captivity live dramatically shortened lives. These are animals used to swimming great distances, in, as Purplepen notes, family groups. The conditions at parks such as Sea World are appalling.

PETA is not wrong in their intent, but the way they are going about it and the wording they use is idiotic and is more likely to hurt their cause than help it.

NicoleK
at February 6, 2012 11:44 PM

Large marine animals are not meant to be in aquariums but it's difficult to study these animals any where else. Not sure what the solution is...

"It's idiotic to cast judgement on animals following their instincts.."

In the case of orcas, dolphins, chimps, and humans it's not just instinct, it's learned group behavior. While most animals kill to eat and will use all other extra energy for reproduction it's not the case with orcas, dolphins, chimps and humans. We like hunting in groups, for the sport of it and we like to set out plans. The fact that orcas spend hours hunting whales only to eat nothing of them…turn sharks over to to eat JUST the liver…and my favorite example? harass fishermen in group coordination to steal fish shows they plan, and it's fun for them, much like it's fun for us.

(P.S. Dolphins like to rape the blow holes of each other and other marine mammals)

Purplepen
at February 7, 2012 12:44 AM

Some judges sometimes make it up as they go. Sooner or later PETA will find asympathizer in a black robe and trouble will ensue.

The legislatures do a very poor job of policing the judiciary. I could have stopped at "job," couldn't I?

MarkD
at February 7, 2012 4:17 AM

I wish the orcas at Sea World had larger enclosures, but I have no problem with them being in captivity or performing for us. Either PETA's going to get their way and humans will be reduced to enclosures, or animals will. I vote animals.

I like that apparently the texas Sea World is just fine in the eyes of this lawsuit.

they could accuse of animal cruelty, and maybe even prove that or make changes... but it isn't about that. This is about "rights", as if somehow animals could exercise them.

This really exposes the way PETA and their ilk see the world. Everything must be under govt. control, and then defined within an inch of it's life.

SwissArmyD
at February 7, 2012 8:21 AM

"Even if animal experimentation produced a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it."
-Ingrid NewKirk, PETA Founder

I have fantasies where one of these PETA or ALF people get in a car accident and come to to ER and I get to look at them laying there on the gurney and say,

"Gosh, I'd love to give you a transfusion, but we know about typing and crossing and correct transfusion techniques because we experimented on animals until we got it right. And I'm sure the doctor would be happy to give you pain medication, but every single medication in here was tested on animals. And the surgeon would really like to save you from bleeding out, but most of the tools he uses were tested on animals."

Let's see how principled those PETA freaks are then.

UW Girl
at February 7, 2012 9:05 AM

This list of Ingrid Newkirk quotes from ActivistCash.com gives a little more flavor to the issue. Taken together, the picture emerges of someone less interested in elevating animals than in demoting humanity. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy? I suspect there are plenty of struggling people worldwide who would appreciate her evaluation. Hers is a conceit that can only come from a well-off first-worlder.

Old RPM Daddy
at February 7, 2012 9:35 AM

Last I heard, orcas have no standing before the court since they are not citizens. Some brain-dead judge could make a wacky ruling, but the appeal would most likely correct that. I don't think it will ever get that far.

Oh and I do point out to PETA supporters how PETA loves to euthanize animals.

No waiting is necessary. The vice president of PETA, Marybeth Sweetland, takes insulin. As she explains it:

“I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic. Twice a day I take synthetically manufactured insulin that still contains some animal products — and I have no qualms about it … I’m not going to take the chance of killing myself by not taking insulin. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.”

Elle
at February 7, 2012 11:41 AM

"I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.”

I guess some animals really are more equal than others. Or maybe Marybeth Sweetland's views are less extreme than Ingrid Newkirk's.

Old RPM Daddy
at February 7, 2012 12:10 PM

The legislatures do a very poor job of policing the judiciary.

Their power to do so is limited, given that the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government. This is why, for example, Gingrich's idea of bringing in justices to account for the decisions before Congress is almost certainly an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers.

Christopher
at February 7, 2012 12:18 PM

Why doesn't PETA ever stand up for the rights of bacteria and viruses? Modern medicine slaughters these poor creatures by the trillions, and yet PETA is silent about their suffering.

They need a "Be Kind to Smallpox" campaign, or maybe "Plague Germs are People Too".

dervish
at February 7, 2012 2:38 PM

Am I the only person that sees a remarkable similarity of federal judges to the old feudal lords of Europe?

Life time tenure.

Essentially absolute power over those in their jurisdiction.

Accountable only to lords that are have a higher class rank (appellate courts)

Actually legislatures do have tremendous power over courts, but refuse to use because it allows them to shirk their duty in dealing with difficult and controversial laws, and because the elites consider judges inherently superior to anybody else, again much like the feudal lords.

Bill O Rights
at February 7, 2012 2:49 PM

"Their power to do so is limited, given that the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government. "

Not equal. Superior. The legislative and executive branches are inferior to the judicial branch, as currently constructed. See this article on New Jersey's state Supreme Court, from City Journal. Why is it this way? Because this is how the Left got around the problem of representative government. We're screwed.

Cousin Dave
at February 7, 2012 5:57 PM

So if they are going to be afforded Constitutional protections, does that mean the next time a trainer is killed, the whales will be brought up on murder charges?

E. Steven Berkimer
at February 8, 2012 4:01 AM

I'll have a little respect for PETA the day they go to a biker bar and start throwing paint on the biker's leather jackets, and winning the ensuing fight.

Jim P.
at February 8, 2012 5:27 AM

I'd like to point out that training most large cetacean species involves ASKING and hoping they listen. You can't really force an animal of that size and intellect to do anything. They get free housing and food in exchange for work. Work that if they refuse to Sea World can do exactly nothing to them. They simply retire them from preforming.

I'd support better care standards which have improved significantly since back during the first few orcas in captivity. One of the things that places like sea world teaches is a respect for the other animals we share the world with. This does a lot more than PETA ever could to improve the outlook of marine species.

vlad
at February 8, 2012 11:08 AM

When someone babbles about "civil rights" and includes a member of the animal kingdon, I find I must ask them: Where are the champions of animal rights among the animals?

There aren't any. Animals do not recognize "rights" (some people don't, either). They do recognize property and its protection by force. That's it.

This is an extension of that other uncomfortable fact activists will not hear: that the bulk of people would not understand this "freedom" of which they speak, and would not enjoy it if you imposed it on them.

After all, look at how frantically erstwhile Americans are donning shackles so that "someone else" can "make them safe".

Radwaste
at February 8, 2012 2:26 PM

I actually like animals and nature and 'the environment', but there is something about PETA and their mentality and tactics that somehow (and this is unlike me, but) makes me viscerally feel like I want to go out and shoot and/or eat scores of animals, pave nature over, and punch these assholes in the face and tell them to STFU already with their whiny BS. And I actually *like* nature and animals, and am very non-violent. PETA aren't doing their movement any favors - them and their ilk have managed to turn 'liking nature' into something to hide and be embarrassed about and never tell anyone, lest you be associated with their views and draw some of the stigma these lobotomized PETA-bots have created.